Ukraine seeks legally binding security guarantees from US and key European states – Zelenskyy
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy (photo: president.gov.ua)
Ukraine needs legally binding security guarantees from key European countries and the United States, not another Budapest Memorandum, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a briefing.
According to him, there is already an outline of the basic elements regarding security guarantees, and they will be presented to the allies.
"In any case, there will be dialogue and debate, and that is normal, freedom of speech. This will happen, but I cannot give a date. We first want to build the infrastructure and understand what the 'choreography' of this will be, and that is very important," Zelenskyy said.
He noted that next week he wants to discuss this, and then "in a short time to understand who is ready for what."
"What do we want? That these security guarantees from key European countries and from the United States be supported by parliaments and Congress. Yes, we want legally binding security guarantees. We do not want a second Budapest Memorandum, we do not want Minsk agreements. We want a serious document," the president emphasized.
Security guarantees for Ukraine
On August 18, a meeting was held at the White House between US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and European leaders. The allies discussed security guarantees for Ukraine.
After the meeting at the White House, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the details of the guarantees were planned to be agreed within 10 days. However, later the timeline was pushed back by another week.
On August 25, US President Donald Trump publicly assured that Europe would provide "significant" guarantees, and that the United States would support these commitments.
At the same time, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni proposed to European leaders a plan for providing security guarantees to Ukraine in the format of collective assistance, which does not include NATO membership.
Meanwhile, the European Union defined how it would participate in Ukraine's security guarantees. This concerns training and civilian missions, as well as the role of neutral states.
Today Zelenskyy outlined three key blocks of security guarantees for Ukraine. These concern maintaining the army, cooperation with NATO countries, and sanctions against Russia.
